Two separate injunctions filed by Speaker Jared Nokes and Attorney General Mark Morrison against Steve Hoeschele’s decisions were announced at last night’s Student Government Association meeting.

“An injunction is an immediate stoppage to an act,” Morrison explained to the Senators.

For this spring’s elections, Hoeschele, chancellor of elections, and his elections commissioners have decided to use Instant Run-off Voting. IRV would change the ballot to have a ranking for each candidate, and voters would rank their choices.

When Hoeschele was up for approval by the Senate last semester, he made it known to the Senators that he was in favor of IRV, but he would consider the opinions of the Senators if he were to change the procedure. Morrison reminded the Senate of this last night.

The chancellor of elections has the option of changing the way the votes are counted as long as the method fits under the SGA’s Constitution.

To educate the students, Hoeschele has readied posters to explain the change before they cast their ballots on March 24 and March 25.

Morrison does not believe that this change is constitutional because of the definition of “plurality.”

“I think the plurality clauses in the bi-laws and the constitution cannot be overlooked,” Morrison said. “It’s either chicken or beef, there is no either-or.”

Because of the timing of the injunctions, the Judiciary branch would not be able to hear the case until after the elections are held.

“As attorney general, Morrison should know that this would be an ex post facto ruling which would require the election to be thrown out, wasting the time of all the candidates and approximately $5,000 of student fee money,” Hoeschele said in his announcement to the Senate.

He continued to note that if the elections were to be thrown out, Nokes would be next in line to finish out the term.

“I’m sure Speaker Nokes is aware of this,” Hoeschele said.

Morrison was hopeful that the elections would not be overturned.

“The reason I asked for an injunction along with the ruling petition is so that IRV may be halted and the elections aren’t thrown out and the money is not wasted that way.”

Nokes explained his concern that the Judiciary branch could force the injunction before the elections, stopping the election process. He was concerned that this would be a breach of separation of powers.

“I firmly believe that they’re not allowed to do that … they can only issue a ruling using the facts from the hearing … I don’t think that would be within their power. If they are overstepping their power, we need to have some reaction from the Senate to make sure we have the balance that we’re supposed to have.”

Morrison disagreed.

“They have the right to say that we won’t allow something damaging to continue … With something this timely, it would be impossible for them to rule by their deadline.”

Hoeschele also announced the SGA Debates will be tomorrow night shown live on UVC-TV 19 at 8 p.m. WMUA will re-air it March 22 at 8 p.m.

During the rest of the night, the Senate heard 16 motions, passing 12.

In a first of a series of space allocation motions, the Registered Student Organization Advocacy Committee brought and passed two motions to the Senate.

The first motion, co-sponsored by Dan Pomeroy, chair of the RSO Advocacy committee, and Senator Meredith Rice, asked for a permanent director for the Student Activities Center to be hired, under the vice chancellor for student affairs and campus life’s new “student first initiative.”

“You need one person at least who is going to stay,” Pomeroy said.

Currently, the office is run without a director, but staffed by graduate students who have been trained to help advise students.

“The students need to stand up and say what we want it to be,” Rice said.

The second motion asked for the secretary of the registry to have the power for emergency space allocation.

Last year, the Senate removed the agency, which handled space allocation and did not replace it. The RSO Advocacy committee has been working on creating a new system, but offered to put this one temporarily in place in order to deal with any emergencies that may come up.

Another heated debate was over adding a staircase behind the Grayson/Field buildings in the Orchard Hill Residential Area connecting to the purple parking lot. This motion ended in the sponsor of the motion, Zsuzsu Cook, chair of the Finance Committee, drawing maps with chalk on the blackboard behind the Speaker about where the proposed staircase would be in relation to the staircase the Senate approved of last week behind Van Meter to the same parking lot.

“I am opposed to unnecessary convenience,” Senator Olaf Aprans said. He complained that this would impede the Frisbee games that students often play on the hill.

Overall, the mood at the meeting was light in comparison to last week’s heated debates over the Pledge of Allegiance. With some serious moments, a lot of laughter was heard consistently.

Nokes also noted this change of atmosphere.

“It’s a productive atmosphere, and helps us get things done,” he said.